A/N: Sorry it's been a while, I'm sort of slow... . But anyway.
Merlin woke up that morning in a complete panic, with the events of the previous afternoon replaying themselves in his mind. His eyes snapped open and he was confused to find himself in his own bed, flinching at the morning sunlight streaming through the window onto his face. Hadn't he just been knocked against the wall by Aulfric's staff?
"Arthur!" he said desperately under his breath, and the next second he had thrown open the door to his room and was hurrying as quickly as he could through Gaius' workshop without tripping over anything or colliding with the tables. Gaius, fully clothed and already beginning his work for the day, turned to look at him, surprised, and then, seeing the look on Merlin's face and his air of complete disarray, immediately moved to intercept him.
He stepped right in front of the warlock, forcing him to stop his frantic advance, and put his hand on Merlin's shoulder. "What is it, Merlin?" he demanded, holding him in place.
"Arthur! The Sidhe, Sophia and Aulfric, they've taken him to the lake to be sacrificed! I have to help him!" Merlin said desperately. "How long - "
"Merlin," Gaius said slowly, staring at him sharply, "that already happened. Don't you remember?"
"...What?" asked Merlin after a moment, completely bewildered.
"You already rescued Arthur from the lake," Gaius informed him. "He's up in his rooms now, and will probably wake up soon."
Merlin took a breath as though to speak, then bit his lip, looking disconcerted. "Oh," he said finally, looking uncertainly up at the physician. "Really?"
Gaius raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember anything at all?"
Merlin shook his head, staring at the ground in concentration as he thought. "No," he said after a moment. "I mean, yes. I don't know. I guess..." He turned abruptly away from Gaius and walked back into his room, shutting the door quietly behind him. Gaius stared after him for a few moments before turning back to his work, frowning to himself.
A few minutes later Merlin reemerged fully dressed, with jacket and neckerchief properly in place. "Are we going to see Arthur now?" he asked Gaius, walking up to him.
He turned to look at him. Merlin's voice was much calmer, but Gaius still detected uneasiness hidden in his expression. "I was about to go check on him, yes. You can come along if you like. Do you want any breakfast, Merlin?" he asked, watching him keenly.
Merlin shook his head, wincing slightly. "Not hungry, thanks. I'll come with you."
Gaius nodded to himself, looking distinctly unhappy. "All right, then. Before Arthur wakes up, though, we need to get our story straight..."
Between them, Gaius and Merlin managed to come up with the complex three-layer truth they needed: the real one they both knew, the one they told Arthur, and the one everyone else was to be told. Fortunately, Arthur swallowed everything they told him, although Merlin noticed he looked both mortified and incredulous that Merlin had ever managed to knock him out, of all people. Merlin cringed internally at Arthur's reaction - he guessed he might regret that particular lie in the near future - but the choice of explanations had been rather limited and this had been the best they could come up with.
Then there was the audience with Uther to deal with. Merlin had to cover Arthur's tracks one more time, and while he had sort of hoped he might be able to get out of the inevitable result just once, this proved to be truly impossible. It was the stocks for him again, for what was hopefully the last time, at least in the foreseeable future.
Gaius looked at the youth beside him as they headed away from the giant double doors. He looked sheepish and a little exasperated to find himself minutes away from having rotten vegetables thrown at him for Arthur's sake again, but there was still a trace of a sort of disconnectedness in his eyes that worried the physician.
"Merlin," he said suddenly, as their paths were about to diverge. Merlin stopped and turned to look at him curiously. "Don't overexert yourself. You had a hard night yesterday."
Merlin nodded dubiously, acknowledging his statement if not the command, then walked out onto the streets of Camelot towards his vegetable-y fate.